In the alkoxide process for containing nuclear waste, the nuclear wastes are mixed at room temperature into a composition of water, alcohol, and the alkoxides of various glass formers such as aluminum, boron, silicon, and sodium. The glass formers are partially hydrolyzed and form a polymerized network which enables the composition to be melted at a lower temperature than it would if the glass formers were added as oxides.
While the alkoxide process is an important improvement over prior art processes of containing nuclear waste in glass, it does present some additional problems. One such problem arises due to the presence of the alcohol that is mixed with the nuclear waste. Not only does this create the danger of an explosion which would disperse the nuclear waste into the environment, but when the alcohol is removed it may be contaminated by volatile radionuclides and would, therefore, require special handling. Until now, however, it was thought that the alcohol had to be present with the nuclear wastes to prevent the complete hydrolyzation of the boron and silicon alkoxides. A complete hydrolyzation would preclude any reaction or polymerization with the nuclear waste. In that event, the nuclear waste would not be chemically bonded to the glass and could be leached out during storage.
Another problem with the conventional alkoxide method of disposing nuclear waste is that an expensive calciner operated under controlled conditions is required to gradually remove the alcohol that is present in order to prevent an explosion when the composition containing the nuclear waste is dried (calcined) prior to melting.